In my research, I study how people use both hearing and vision to identify spoken
words – that is, how visible mouth movements contribute to speech comprehension.

Some ongoing projects:

Explorations of a perceptual illusion called the "McGurk effect." This occurs when
an auditory speech signal of a person saying one syllable (such as "ba") is presented
at the same time as a video clip of a person saying a different syllable (such as
"da"). Very often, the mismatched visual signal actually causes listeners to mis-hear
the auditory syllable.

Examining the time-course of speech perception using cursor movements with a computer
mouse ("mousetracking")

Much of my research is conducted in collaboration with researchers at Haskins Laboratories,
a non-profit research laboratory in downtown New Haven that is dedicated to the study
of speech and reading and reading disabilities. My research is partially supported
by a grant from the National Institutes of Health to Haskins Laboratories, and has
also been supported by CSU research grants.

Irwin, J.& Brancazio, L. (2015).The development of patterns of gaze to a speaking face. Presented at the first joint conference on facial analysis, animation and auditory-visual
speech processing (FAAVSP), Vienna, Austria.

Every semester, students can register for Psy 197 (Research Internship) for up to
three credits. Psych 197 is a great opportunity to gain first-hand experience in how
cognitive psychology research is conducted. Students enrolled in Psych 197 are responsible
for running participants in experiments, and get involved in various aspects of the
research process, such as organizing data and files, scheduling and cataloging participants,
and helping with data analysis.

If you are interested in enrolling in Psych 197, please email me during the registration
period or during the add/drop period.

Independent Study/ Undergraduate Honors Thesis / Master's Thesis:

If you have an idea for an experiment that you would like to conduct that involves
language (or related topics in cognitive psychology), please come see me so we can
discuss how to set up an independent study project.

Off-Campus Research Internships and Other Research Opportunities:

Haskins Laboratories has many ongoing projects involving several aspects of speech
perception, speech production, and reading, including skilled reading, reading acquisition,
and reading disability. Some projects involve research using brain-imaging techniques
such as fMRI. There are sometimes opportunities for psychology majors to do an internship
working with research teams at Haskins, by registering for Psych 463 (Field Practicum
in Psychological Research).